According to a new study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Republican and Democrat partisans tend to disparage each other’s intelligence more than their morality. The findings shed light on the country’s growing partisan divide.

Researcher Rachel Hartman (@RachelXHartman) of the Deepest Beliefs Lab and Center for the Science of Moral Understanding at UNC Chapel Hill said, “There has been an alarming increase in animosity between political opponents” in her study’s conclusion.

While many researchers have attempted to reduce antipathy by bridging liberal-conservative moral gulfs, this approach assumes that the conflict is a moral one. That’s something I’d like to investigate further. Trying to get people to see past their differences may be a waste of time if the conflict isn’t even about morality.

Over the course of four studies, the researchers found that both liberals and conservatives see each other as less intelligent than morally repugnant.

In the beginning, Hartman and her colleagues wanted to see if people’s perceptions of their political rivals’ morality and their perceptions of their opponents’ intelligence differed. Using the statistical technique known as factor analysis, they gathered 481 Americans from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform and verified their suspicions.

Hartman and her colleagues then looked into how North Carolinians felt about liberals and conservatives’ perceived stupidity and immorality after a statewide vote on six constitutional amendments in 2018. Three hundred and thirty-five residents of North Carolina participated in the study, which examined their opinions on the six proposed amendments. After that, the participants were quizzed on the rationale behind liberal and conservative voting habits.

For conservatives, liberals were more likely to be perceived as unintelligent and immoral for supporting the amendments, while liberals were more likely to be perceived as intelligent and moral for opposing the amendments. Unintelligence was rated as a more important factor than morality by both liberals and conservatives, however.

The research team surveyed a nationally representative sample of 633 people for their third study. They found that Democrats and Republicans rated each other more unintelligent than morally depraved, in accordance with previous research. Democrats were more critical of Republicans than Republicans were critical of Democrats.

As well as meta-perceptions, Hartman and her coworkers looked into that topic. 176 Americans from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were recruited for the final study and asked to rate how the average Democrat and Republican were perceived by them. However, participants overestimated the degree to which Democrats and Republicans regarded each other as morally bankrupt as opposed to intellectually bankrupt.

As a result, I’m careful not to exaggerate or draw conclusions that are not supported by the evidence.” PsyPost quotes Hartman as saying, “Our main finding is that political opponents see each other as more unintelligent than immoral.

However, we lack the data to support specific recommendations for how people should change their engagement with political adversaries. Dismissing others as stupid, ignorant, or brainwashed, on the other hand, seems insulting and dehumanizing. Be prepared to explain why you believe what you believe and to listen to what others have to say when confronted with opposing views.”

“It’s a good thing if two smart people can disagree with each other. If a democracy is to work, it must allow for an open exchange of ideas among its citizens, according to Hartman.

The study, like all research, has its limitations. As an example, it’s not clear how applicable the findings are to political contexts outside of the United States. People’s political perceptions could be significantly altered by major events, such as the Capitol storming on January 6, 2021. There is still a need for further investigation into how to reduce polarization more effectively.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done before this can be applied to interventions to reduce animosity, Hartman said. “There is some evidence that recognizing that people have good reasons for their beliefs reduces animosity, but we would like to directly test whether we can change perceptions of intelligence and the extent to which doing so is beneficial..” Political opponents may see each other as more stupid than evil overall, but there may be specific issues or contexts when that difference disappears, is reversed, or is even erased entirely.

Partisan animosity is studied psychologically by Hartman and his colleagues, and the interventions they use aim to alter people’s perceptions of one another as well as their interactions with one another. There’s only so much we can do at the individual level to reduce partisan hostility, but it’s a structural issue. Our institutions and media environments must also change if we are to achieve lasting change.”